What happens when at the Winter Paralympics?

The Winter Paralympics will feature almost 660 athletes from 50 countries competing for 79 medals at Milan-Cortina.

Competitors will take part in six sports – Para-Alpine skiing, Para-biathlon, Para-cross-country skiing, Para-ice hockey, Para-snowboard and wheelchair curling.

Great Britain’s team features 25 athletes – a mix of seasoned campaigners and talented newcomers.

The action started on Wednesday, 4 March with wheelchair curling action before the opening ceremony on Friday, 6 March.

Here is your guide to what is happening each day and who to look out for.

The only competitive action at the Games on Friday was a morning session of four matches in the wheelchair curling mixed doubles event.

British pair Jo Butterfield and Jason Kean continued their resurgence with a second consecutive victory, having started the round-robin phase with two losses.

A 5-4 win over the United States left them in a five-way tie for second place in the standings after four matches.

The sporting action will pause for the opening ceremony, which takes place at the Verona Arena – the venue for the Olympic closing ceremony, from 19:00.

Organisers say it will blend spectacle, culture, and hospitality and will “showcase the beauty of Italy’s monuments, the talent of its people, and the warm welcome extended to delegations from all over the world”.

Italy most recently staged the Winter Paralympics in 2006.

The Games in Turin featured 474 athletes from 38 countries taking part in 58 medal events across five sports. Wheelchair curling made its debut with GB winning silver.

Russia topped the medal table with 13 golds, 13 silvers and seven bronzes, while Mexico and Mongolia competed at a Winter Paralympics for the first time.

Medals: 12

The first medals of the Games will be awarded in Cortina with the women’s and men’s Para-Alpine skiing downhill events across all three categories – visually impaired, standing and sitting – at the Tofane Alpine Skiing Centre.

In the men’s visually impaired competition (09:50), Neil Simpson and his brother and guide Andrew will be hoping to make a solid start to their busy programme in what is probably not their strongest event, though they have had a couple of World Cup podium finishes this season.

Fred Warburton and James Hannan go in the same event at their first Paralympics.

Warburton is a former decathlete who was diagnosed with a degenerative eye condition six years ago and only made his first race start in February 2025.

The women’s visually impaired race starts the programme at 08:30. This is not Menna Fitzpatrick and guide Katie Guest’s best event, though Fitzpatrick won a world title back in 2019.

Fitzpatrick, who is Britain’s most decorated Winter Paralympian with six medals, has recovered from a broken leg and knee injury over the past 18 months to compete in Italy while Guest will be making her Games debut after missing Beijing following a positive Covid test.

Simpson, Warburton, Fitzpatrick and all of their rivals in the VI categories will make their way down the course following a guide who communicates instructions via radio.

Canada’s Mollie Jepsen will defend her women’s standing title, but it is the participation of one of her main rivals – Varvara Voronchikhina – that has led to a lot of discussion.

The 23-year-old is one of the six Russians who will compete under their nation’s flags after the International Paralympic Committee lifted its ban on athletes from the two countries competing.

The Para-snowboard programme kicks off from 10:00 with snowboard cross qualifying to decide rankings before Sunday’s head-to-head elimination rounds.

Athletes race down a specially built course with features like banks, rollers and jumps. Each athlete has two runs with the best deciding their final ranking.

Scotland’s Davy Zyw, who is thought to be the first snowsport athlete with motor neurone disease (MND) – a degenerative neurological condition – to ever compete at the Games, will compete in the men’s UL (upper limb) event from 10:21.

Also in the event is James Barnes-Miller, who is appearing at his third Games, while Ollie Hill goes in the men’s LL2 (lower limb) from 11:03.

On day one of the Para-biathlon events, Scott Meenagh goes in what is probably his strongest event – the seated sprint over 7.5km (09:35) – with high hopes of a top-five finish.

At the wheelchair curling, the mixed doubles continues with GB facing world champions Japan (13:35), and it’s also the opening day of the mixed team event.

GB’s Hugh Nibloe, Karen Aspey, Austin McKenzie, Graeme Stewart and Stewart Pimblett start against Slovakia (08:35) who just missed out on a medal at the last Worlds, before taking on the USA (17:35).

Para-biathlon got a revamp after Beijing 2022, so athletes now compete over sprint pursuit, sprint (7.5km) and individual (12.5km) distances rather than 6km, 10km and 12.5km from four years ago.

Ukraine are the sport’s most successful Paralympic nation with 23 gold, 28 silver and 28 bronze medals, including three podium clean sweeps four years ago.

But the women’s seated event (09:00) will feature a meeting of two American Paralympic legends – Oksana Masters and Kendall Gretsch.

The pair are already assured of their places in Paralympic history as part of a select group of athletes with Summer and Winter golds to their name – Masters in Para-cycling, Para-biathlon and Para-cross-country skiing and Gretsch in Para-triathlon, Para-biathlon and Para-cross-country skiing.

Medals: 10

It is a busy morning of action in Cortina, where the snowboard cross medals will be decided.

Athletes competed in qualifying on Saturday down the specially built course which includes features like banks, rollers and jumps, and they will be in action in races from 10:00 as the field is whittled down.

The top two from each four-athlete heat will advance before the finals at 11:32 (women’s LL2), 11:38 (men’s UL), 11:44 (men’s LL1) and 11:49 (men’s LL2).

Delson will have to contend with 51-year-old Beijing gold medallist Cecile Hernandez of France, plus US team-mate and 2018 champion Brenna Huckaby and a couple of strong Chinese athletes.

In the men’s UL, James Barnes-Miller will be hoping to figure having had a couple of World Cup podiums this season, but his biggest challenge will probably come from China, who will be hoping to repeat their podium clean sweep of four years ago, led by defending champion Ji Lijia.

His GB team-mate Davy Zyw, who is thought to be the first snowsport athlete with motor neurone disease (MND) to ever compete at the Games, will also be in action in the same division.

Ollie Hill qualified for the knockout rounds four years ago in the LL2 division and will be hoping to impress again in the weaker of his two events.

Canada’s defending champion Tyler Turner tops the men’s LL1 World Cup rankings and will be a leading challenger along with American pair Noah Elliott and Mike Schultz – the silver medallist from Beijing.

There’s more Para-biathlon action with Scott Meenagh hoping to push for a top-eight finish in the men’s individual sitting (09:30) – in which competitors will race over 12.5km with four visits to the shooting range.

Expect a huge reception for Italian Para-snowboarder Emanuel Perathoner as he bids for his first Paralympic medal in the LL2 event.

Perathoner, who lives two hours from Cortina, is a two-time Olympian in snowboard cross but in January 2021 suffered a serious knee injury while training for the Beijing Games.

He needed four surgeries and a full knee replacement and had to learn to walk again – but he was not ready to give up snowboarding and in 2022 was classified as a Para-snowboarder.

Medals: Six

It is a big day for Scottish skier Neil Simpson, who defends his men’s Super-G visually impaired title at the Tofane Alpine Skiing Centre from 09:50.

Simpson and his brother and guide Andrew created history four years ago when they were victorious, becoming the first British men to win a Winter Games skiing gold medal.

Simpson teamed up with his other guide Rob Poth to win the Super-G at the 2023 World Championships, but the event was not contested at last year’s Worlds because of bad weather.

Neil has had a couple of World Cup podiums this season – one each with his brother and Poth. The big danger will come from Austrian Johannes Aigner while Italian hopes are led by Giacomo Bertagnolli.

Bertagnolli and Aigner won silver and bronze in Beijing and are second and first respectively in the World Cup rankings.

Games debutants Fred Warburton and James Hannan also go in the same race for the British team.

Briton Menna Fitzpatrick claimed silver in Beijing and bronze in Pyeongchang but with questions over her fitness, Austrian pair Veronika Aigner – the older sister of Johannes – and Elina Stary look like being the ones to beat in the women’s VI event from 08:30.

Norway’s Jesper Pedersen defends his men’s sitting crown – one of four golds he claimed in Beijing – but watch for Dutch star Jeroen Krampschreur and Canada’s Kurt Oatway.

And Japan’s Momoka Muraoka will need to see off the likes of Germany’s Anna-Lena Forster, Audrey Pascual Seco of Spain and Dutch 47-year-old Barbara van Bergen to retain her title in the women’s seated event.

At the wheelchair curling, the GB mixed doubles team bring their round-robin campaign to a close against hosts Italy (13:35), while the mixed team have a double-header against Korea (08:35) and Sweden (17:35).

Great Britain have competed in every Games since 1976, but had to wait until Sochi 2014 for a first gold medal as Kelly Gallagher and guide Charlotte Evans landed Super-G visually impaired victory.

Gallagher – the first athlete from Northern Ireland to compete at the Games when she made her debut in Vancouver in 2010 – and Evans paired up in 2011 and had a dream run in Russia, taking the title by just 0.22secs.

Medals: 12

Formerly known as the Super Combined, the Alpine Combined features a Super-G run followed by a slalom run to decide the medals.

Neil Simpson won bronze in the men’s visually impaired event last time but Austrian Johannes Aigner, who took silver then, will be hoping to go one better (run one from 09:10, run two from 12:50).

Italy’s Giacomo Bertagnolli leads Italian hopes – the defending Paralympic champion is top of the World Cup standings – while Canada’s Kalle Ericsson and Michal Golas of Poland have also impressed this season.

In the women’s visually impaired event (run one from 08:00; run two from 12:00), Menna Fitzpatrick won bronze four years ago but the Austrian pair of Elina Stary and Veronika Aigner are formidable rivals, and Italy’s Chiara Mazzel won gold at the 2023 World Championships.

Germany’s Anna-Lena Forster defends her women’s sitting title, but Spain’s Audrey Pascual Seco will be a big danger. Both Arthur Bauchet of France and Ebba Aarsjoe of Sweden will defend their standing titles.

At the wheelchair curling, GB will hope to be involved in the mixed doubles semi-finals (13:35) while the mixed team face their eighth of 11 round-robin games against hosts Italy (08:35).

Could we see history made on the opening day of the Para-cross-country skiing programme?

Brazil has never won a Winter Paralympic medal but 23-year-old Cristian Ribera will be hoping to change that in the men’s sitting sprint (qualification from 10:05, final 12:29).

In a country where snow is at a premium, Ribera’s training involves using roller skis, which have wheels to emulate cross-country skiing.

He narrowly missed a place in the final four years ago in Beijing at his second Games but has continued to progress and enjoyed regular World Cup success, including in Germany in January.

Medals: Seven

Great Britain will hope to be challenging for the first medal in the wheelchair curling event, which will be decided in the inaugural mixed doubles final from 13:35. The bronze-medal match takes place at the same time in Cortina.

The mixed team round-robin continues apace with GB against defending champions China (08:05) before their penultimate round-robin game against Latvia from 19:05.

There will be a new winner in the men’s visually impaired category (11:55) following the retirement of Canadian great Brian McKeever, who dominated the division by winning 16 Paralympic gold medals after making his debut in 2002.

American Jake Adicoff, who took two silvers behind McKeever in Beijing, will be hoping to make it to the top of the podium.

Adicoff, who made his Paralympic debut in Sochi as a teenager, suffered sight loss after contracting chicken pox in the womb.

He missed out on a medal in this event in Beijing but is the world champion over this distance and has World Cup wins to his name in Gernany and Poland this season.

The most successful Winter Paralympian of all time is Norway’s Ragnhild Myklebust, who won 22 gold medals across her career in cross-country skiing, biathlon and ice sledge speed skating, which is no longer part of the Games programme.

Born in 1943, she was diagnosed with polio aged two. As a child she was encouraged to take part in sport and shone at table tennis, but found her calling in winter sports and cross-country skiing in particular.

She made her Winter Paralympic debut in Innsbruck in 1988, winning five golds in cross-country and ice sledge speed skating.

Medals: Three

The female skiers take centre stage in Cortina with two giant slalom runs starting at 08:00, with the visually impaired division followed by the standing and seated skiers. Run two follows in the same order from 11:00.

Britain’s Menna Fitzpatrick won silver in the event in Pyeongchang but finished out of the medals in Beijing, where Veronika Aigner won gold.

Aigner has won three of the four World Cup giant slalom races staged this season, with compatriot Elina Stary taking the other.

Britain’s Hester Poole will be making her Paralympic debut aged 18 with guide Ali Hall.

But she will not be the youngest competitor in the field with American teenager Meg Gustafson, who is guided by her older brother Spencer, only 16.

Four years ago, Ebba Aarsjoe of Sweden was second after the first giant slalom run in the standing division on her Games debut but failed to finish her second run, leaving her bitterly disappointed.

Though she did win gold in both the slalom and super combined and bronze in the downhill, she will be keen to make up for missing out in this event four years ago.

This season she is leading the giant slalom World Cup standings thanks to a pair of wins in St Moritz, but France’s Aurelie Richard and veteran German Andrea Rothfuss will be among those to push her.

The wheelchair curling team round robin comes to an end. GB are not involved in the penultimate session at 12:35 but return to the ice at 17:35 to finish their campaign against Norway, who are fourth in the world rankings and include Jostein Stordahl, who is competing at his ninth Games.

Para-ice hockey has been part of the Paralympic programme since 1994, but was originally developed in Sweden in the 1960s.

Previously known as sledge hockey, each team has six players on the ice (including the goalie) at a time.

The players use sledges with two blades and two sticks to push themselves and handle the puck, and games consist of three 15-minute periods.

Great Britain competed when the sport made its Games debut – finishing fourth – but their last appearance was in 2006, when a team featuring Richard Whitehead, who later went on to win Paralympic athletics gold in London and Rio, finished seventh.

Medals: Nine

Like the women’s giant slalom, the men’s event is over two runs (from 08:00 and 11:30) with the visually impaired athletes starting each run, followed by standing and seated athletes.

Austria’s Johannes Aigner will be out to retain his title in the visually impaired event but Italian Giacomo Bertagnolli is the world champion and aiming to go one better than Beijing, where he won silver. Canada’s Kalle Ericsson could also figure.

Neil Simpson will be hoping to improve on his fifth place from Beijing alongside guide Rob Poth, Fred Warburton goes with guide James Hannan, and it will be an exciting day for 19-year-old Sam Cozens and his guide Adam Hall, who make their first appearance at the Paralympics in the event.

France’s Arthur Bauchet will be aiming to upgrade his bronze from four years ago in the standing event but his compatriot Jules Segers and Robin Cuche of Switzerland will be among the main challengers.

In the wheelchair curling, Great Britain hope to make it to the mixed team semi-finals at 09:05.

The last time a British team made it to the last four was in 2014, when the team of Aileen Neilson, Gregor Ewan, Bob McPherson, Jim Gault and Angie Malone lost to Russia but recovered superbly to beat China for bronze.

It is a quick turnaround for the losers, with the bronze-medal match at 17:35.

Briton Scott Meenagh completes his Para-biathlon campaign in the men’s sprint pursuit seated event (qualifying 09:15; final 11:45) in which missed shots mean a 20-second time penalty rather than a penalty loop.

Meenagh was seventh at last year’s World Championships and has had three top-eight finishes over the distance in this year’s World Cup races.

In the visually impaired races, Germany’s Leonie Walter and Oleksandr Kazik of Ukraine will be aiming to add the Paralympic title to their 2025 world crowns.

And in the standing division, Canada will be aiming for a double through Natalie Wilkie and five-time Paralympian Mark Arendz, with both landing World Cup wins this season.

In Para-biathlon, athletes do not carry their rifles during the skiing stage but receive them at the biathlon range

Competitors with vision impairments use rifles that make a sound to help them aim. Depending on the signal intensity, the noise indicates when the athlete is on target.

Medals: Ten

The Para-snowboarders are back in action for their second event – the banked slalom.

Athletes race against the clock down a winding course with tight turns. Each athlete has two runs and the best decides their final ranking.

Nina Sparks will create history as Britain’s first female Paralympic snowboarder in the women’s LL2 event, which starts the day with run one from 09:00 and run two from 10:50.

Ollie Hill won Britain’s first Paralympic medal in the sport with bronze in this event four years ago, and he will go again in the men’s LL2 (Lower Limb) event from 10:06 and 11:56.

Compatriot James Barnes-Miller, who was ninth in Beijing, will aim to challenge for a medal in the men’s UL (upper limb) event but Chinese riders will again be the ones to watch (09:22 and 11:12).

Briton Matt Hamilton makes his Games debut in the same division while Davy Zyw, who is thought to be the first snowsport athlete with motor neurone disease (MND) to compete at the Games, will be in action in his second event.

The women’s Para-Alpine skiing programme comes to an end with the slalom across the three divisions – visually impaired, standing and seated – with run one starting at 08:00 and run two from 12:00.

Briton Menna Fitzpatrick narrowly missed out on a medal in this event in Beijing, finishing fourth as Austria’s Veronika Aigner beat older sister Barbara.

Aigner will be favourite to retain her crown but will need to get the better of the likes of compatriot Elina Stary, who leads the World Cup standings, Italy’s Chiara Mazzel, and Alexandra Rexova of Slovakia.

Briton Hester Poole goes in the second of her two events with guide Ali Hall, with the teenager hoping to gain more experience of top-level competition.

In the seated division, Germany’s Anna-Lena Forster will hope to power her way to a third title in a row in the event but faces two tough Chinese rivals in Wenjing Zhang – the 2022 silver medallist – and Sitong Liu.

The wheelchair curling tournament comes to its climax with the mixed team final at 14:05.

The wheelchair curling events at the 2026 Games are taking place at the Cortina Curling Stadium a couple of weeks after it hosted the Olympics, during which Bruce Mouat’s rink won silver in the men’s event.

The venue was originally built in 1955 for the Cortina d’Ampezzo 1956 Olympic Winter Games, and back then staged the opening ceremony and figure skating competitions.

Medals: Ten

Para-skier Neil Simpson and guide Rob Poth will be aiming to finish their Games on a high in the men’s visually impaired slalom on the final day of the Paralympic programme.

Run one starts from 08:00 with visually impaired skiers followed by standing and seated, with run two to come at 11:00 in the same order.

Simpson was ninth in this event in Beijing but he and Poth lie fourth in the World Cup standings.

Giacomo Bertagnolli of Italy is defending champion and would like nothing better than to end his home Games with a medal, but Johannes Aigner of Austria is always a danger. France’s Hyacinthe Deleplace and Poland’s Michal Golas have shown good form in World Cup races this season.

Simpson and Poth will be joined on the startline by fellow Britons Sam Cozens and Adam Hall, and Fred Warburton and James Hannan, with Cozens and Warburton aiming to learn more lessons at their debut Games.

It will also be a learning experience for Dom Allen in the standing division, where France’s Arthur Bauchet will be aiming to retain his title and Russia’s Aleksei Bugaev could be among the big dangers. Norway’s Jesper Pederson will hope for back-to-back wins in the seated event.

The Para-cross-country skiing programme comes to an end with a test for both male and female athletes over 20km.

This is the first time the women have raced over the distance at a Paralympics and it will be a brutal examination for everyone at the end of a busy schedule.

Scott Meenagh goes for GB in the seated division but China’s defending champion Peng Zheng and world championship silver medallist Pavlo Bal of Ukraine could be among the frontrunners.

American Jake Adicoff won silver over the distance in Beijing in the men’s visually impaired event and is the current world champion, with Zebastian Modin of Sweden possibly his main rival.

It would be a major surprise if the United States and Canada do not figure in the Para-ice hockey final at 15:05, which brings the curtain down on the sporting action at these Games.

The two nations have dominated the sport for many years, with the US going for a fourth title in a row on the back of winning their seventh world title last year.

Canada’s last Paralympic gold came in 2006 but they did win the 2024 World Championship.

Winter sports attention will switch after these Games to French Alps 2030, which will be the 15th edition of the Winter Paralympics.

They will take place from 1-10 March 2030 – 38 years after the Albertville 1992 Paralympic Winter Games.

France is a Paralympic Games stalwart, having been part of every Winter Games since the first edition in 1976 and also hosting the 2024 Summer Games.

The six sports that were part of this year’s programme will all be in again with plans to split the action between Nice (curling and Para-ice hockey) and the French Alps (Para-Alpine skiing, Para-biathlon, Para-cross-country and Para-snowboard)